[ NNSquad ] Re: Consumption Based Broadband

[Keith Dawson <kdawson@slashdot.org>]

>  What sort of laws are in place that would prevent such an arrangement?
>  Is this covered by the proposed NN regulations?

That is indeed the question, isn't it?

From yesterday's NY Times coverage [*] of the FCC's action:

[*] http://is.gd/4y7M7   [ bits.blogs.nytimes.com ]

  Mr. Genachowski, however, offered more questions than answers on what
  may be the biggest philosophical debate: whether a telecommunications
  company can give preference to services it offers over those of
  rivals. Communications companies want to offer services that take
  advantage of some of the capacity or features of their networks. This
  might be offering Internet video services, improved voice mail or
  text-messaging, or faster connections to Internet sites that pay for
  speedy service.

  The commission simply asked for comment on how to define what it calls
  "managed services" and what rules should apply to them.

  On this issue, Michael J. Copps, one of the Democratic commissioners,
  argued that Internet service providers should not be able to favor
  their own products over others.

  "The Internet must never be about powerful gatekeepers and walled
  gardens," he said. "It must always be about the smoothest possible
  flow of communications among people."

  But Mr. McDowell [Republican FCC commissioner] said that such rules
  would deny consumers the benefits of better services.

  "Consumers are telling the marketplace that they don't want networks
  that operate merely as 'dumb pipes,'" he said. "Sometimes they want
  the added value and efficiency that comes from intelligence inside
  networks as well."

In other words, the action that appears to those of us on the pro-NN
side of the debate to be the most clearly and patently evil of all,
to those on the anti-NN side seems to be simply good common sense.

-- KDawson